2005

MAY 2005
04.05.05 SQUEAKING POINT, TAS 1000hrs (DD)
On a fine day with clear blue sky, the witness was out fishing near Port Sorell when something shiny caught his attention. He was puzzled to see a silent grey bullet-shaped object out over the water. The object was not much more than 30-40 metres above the water and about the same distance away. It slowly moved north towards the sea and as it did so the witness called out to other fishermen nearby, but they didn’t hear him. To complete the puzzle the object, which had four silver square-like windows on the side, just vanished into mid air. Local enquiries, checks with the Devonport Airport and media coverage all proved negative. Keith Roberts TUFOIC

06.05.05 EMERALD, QLD 1830hrs
On 6 May 2005, at 6.30 pm, observers watched a large black triangular object in the sky above Emerald. At each point of the triangle was a red light. The object was seen from the car as the observers were driving along the highway. E-mail report.

07.05.05 GOLD COAST (BOYLAND), QLD 1401hrs (DO)
Source: Rod Fearon, Australian Transport Safety Bureau 07.05.05
On 7 May 2005, at about 1.10 pm, Kerry was looking southwest from her home in Boyland, in the direction of Rathdowney and Beaudesert, and saw a large dark object falling nearly vertically (about 15-degrees off the vertical), leaving a vapour trail. The object appeared to be a long way away. No reports of aircraft missing in the area were received. Robert Frola AUFORN

08.05.05 WEST TAKONE, TAS 0600hrs (DD)
The witness was up early for work and having a coffee before leaving home. Glancing out the window with a view to the northeast he saw something shining. Just above the hill line against a clear sky was an object with a rounded top and flat base. It was a bright silver colour some 500 metres distant just above the trees. He watched it for about 3-4 minutes before turning to pick up his coffee cup. Looking back he discovered the object had vanished. Keith Roberts TUFOIC

13.05.05 MELBOURNE (FERNTREE GULLY), VIC 2200hrs (NL)
Source: Victorian UFO Research Society, Moorabin, Victoria
While at the corner of Edina Road and Wattletree Road, Ferntree Gully on 13 May 2005, the observer’s attention was caught by the unusual movements of eleven bright orange-yellow lights in the southern sky, at an elevation of about 25-degrees above the horizon. The night was fine and mild, and there was little or no cloud in the sky. He was excited and intrigued at seeing something that he could neither identify nor explain. Each of the circular lights was about four times the size of one of the largest stars, and while he initially thought that they might have been aircraft, their silent movements were unlike those of any aircraft he had seen before. They seemed to be travelling with the speed of an airliner, one behind the other, weaving around almost like the movement of a snake. When the line split into a set of five lights, and another of six, he unsuccessfully attempted to use his mobile camera phone to photograph the six, and in doing so lost track of the five. As he watched, the remaining six continued to move from the south toward him, and changed into a rectangular or diamond-shaped formation immediately above him. From this point, they moved in a roughly northeasterly direction until reaching the mountain ranges, at which point they commenced gaining altitude, and continued to recede until between five to ten minutes had elapsed from the first sighting, when they could no longer be seen.

13.05.05 MELBOURNE (FERNTREE GULLY), VIC 2225hrs (NL)
Source: 1800 Freecall National Hotline Number - Callin Code Not Assigned
On 13 May 2005, Tim was at a Pizza shop in Mountain Gate, when at about 10.25 pm, he and about 30 other people saw a group of lights travelling in formation. At first there were about 15 lights, then later on there were about seven or eight left. There was no sound associated with the lights. They were in a formation like the Southern Cross, and changed their formation as they moved. Then they formed symbol shapes below symbol shapes, reminding the witnesses of Chinese writing. The movements were very smooth, and seemed to involve tiny circular movements. They were orange or amber coloured, and about seven times brighter than the stars. Tim is now not as sceptical as he was. George Simpson AUFORN VIC

13.05.05 MELBOURNE (FERNTREE GULLY), VIC 2227hrs (NL)
Source: 1800 Freecall National Hotline Number - Callin Code 4800(?)
On 13 May 2005, at 10.27 pm, Kathy saw eight or ten lights that looked like little balloons with lights on them, which then faded away. They were seen for about 10-15 minutes. They seemed to be in a line, and made no sound. George Simpson AUFORN VIC

13.05.05 MELBOURNE (BORONIA), VIC 2242hrs (NL)
Source: 1800 Freecall National Hotline Number - Callin Code 4801(?)
On 13 May 2005, at 10.42 pm, Renée saw a kite formation which changed gradually into a rectangle as it went, and some of the lights making up the formation faded from view as they ascended. They were all red, and slowly ascending, and very bright. George Simpson AUFORN VIC

13.05.05 MELBOURNE (FERNTREE GULLY), VIC 2245hrs (NL)
Source: Victorian UFO Research Society, Moorabin, Victoria
On 13 May 2005 at 10.45 pm, the reporting observer and her son, who was in the passenger seat, were heading home from a friend’s place in Ferntree Gully, when they both noticed nine bright yellow lights in the clear northern sky. At first they thought that the lights were on a mountain, but she then realised that their observation point was not close enough to the mountain for this to be the case. She pulled her vehicle over near the Clyde Street - Burwood Highway intersection, and they stood in the cold atmosphere and watched the lights for about ten minutes. The lights were moving in the northern sky where they gradually, one by one, faded and disappeared. Initially, they were much brighter than the stars, and there was no noise to suggest that there were any helicopters or planes in the vicinity.

13.05.05 MELBOURNE (BORONIA), VIC 2345hrs (NL)
Source: 1800 Freecall National Hotline Number - Callin Code 4803(?)
On 13 May 2005, at 11.45 pm, Colin reported seeing only one light, moving around, level with the bottom of the Southern Cross, around 5-10-degrees southeast at 40-degrees elevation. It lasted about 10 minutes. It was unusual, not a plane, it moved to the left and back to the right again, faded in and out in intensity, and was orange or red.

His parents saw it also in Montrose, a nearby suburb. George Simpson AUFORN VIC

14.05.05 MELBOURNE (SALE), VIC 2112hrs (NL)
Source: 1800 Freecall National Hotline Number - Callin Code 4810(?)
On 14 May 2005, at 9.12 pm, the witness was outside having a smoke when he saw the object and called to some other people to come outside to see it. He described it as a large white light going from east to west, then it turned and went off to the north and disappeared. It was heading away from the RAAF base, but made no sound and travelled faster than any aircraft. It also turned very sharply off to the north. The air base had nothing going on at the time. Everyone who saw it agreed that it was very unusual, and resembled no known aircraft. George Simpson AUFORN VIC

14.05.05 MELBOURNE (SALE), VIC 2145hrs (NL)
Source: Victorian UFO Research Society, Moorabin, Victoria
The reporting observer indicates that during the night he saw something that was unlike anything he had seen before. He lives in Sale, Victoria where, at about 9.45 pm on 14 May 2005, he had just taken his dog outside before going to bed, and noticed a strange orangey yellow light off to the north. The light looked like a star, but was the wrong colour, and much too big. A white shooting star shot across the sky going from the east to the west, but he did not watch it for long, as the yellow light was so unusual.


It was moving rapidly toward Sale, in a southerly direction. Without knowing the actual size of the light/object, he could not determine its altitude for sure, but his best guess was about 10,000 feet. He also estimated that its speed was in the order of hundreds of miles per hour, and noticed that no noise could be heard. As the light got closer to Sale, it slowed until it stopped to the south of his house (over the main part of Sale), and then started to rise slowly.

He called his girlfriend out and they watched it as it climbed and slowly moved back to the north, until it disappeared from sight. It did not follow the curvature of the earth as it travelled north. It just seemed to get higher and further away. As a holder of a current private pilot’s licence who has flown light aircraft, helicopters, gliders, hang gliders and ultralights, and has been involved in one way or another with the RAAF since 1978, having worked on Mirage fighters, he is prepared to say that this was no aircraft that he has ever seen before.

Additionally, he also once lived next to the Williamtown RAAF Base in NSW where the F18 Hornets are based, and two weeks previously F111s were based in Sale. Encountering this unusual light was truly a bizarre experience for him.

16.05.05 MELBOURNE (BEECHWORTH), VIC 2045hrs (Identified as the Star Canopus)
Source: 1800 Freecall National Hotline Number - Callin Code 4820(?)
On 16 May 2005, at 8.45 pm, a friend called the witness to tell him to go outside and have a look at an unusual object in the sky. It was at about 20 degrees elevation and due southwest. It was the star, Canopus. George Simpson AUFORN VIC

18.05.05 QUEANBEYAN, ACT 1400hrs (Identified as birds)
I received a request from Larraine Cilia, Vice President UFOSWS, to try to have a look at a video clip of a possible UFO sighting in the Queanbeyan area.

A couple of chaps had been flying kites at Wright Park in Queanbeyan on the 18 May 2005 at about 2 pm and videotaped some of the action. When the tape was replayed at home through their TV a couple of days later, a silver grey streak was seen for a split second darting across the screen from left to right and seemingly vanishing about halfway across the screen; what they saw during freeze-frame made them think they had inadvertently video taped a UFO.

They contacted UFOSWS and sent a copy tape for their perusal.

I contacted the chaps who shot the clip and after introductions they pretty much jumped at the chance to show me the original video.

A couple of days later I was sitting in their lounge room watching what at first glance looked like a possible UFO darting across their TV screen.

After questioning them and viewing the clip many times during a two hour period I was certain they had not hoaxed anything and that the video camera had inadvertently recorded a UFO that was not noticed by anyone including the cameraman at the time of recording; all that remained was to work out what the object was.

I later went to the area where they had taken the video (Wright Park, Queanbeyan) and placed myself where the cameraman had stood and I took a few digital stills of the scene as it had been framed in the video. I also checked the distances to the background trees, the goal posts and to various markings on the ground between where the cameraman and the kite flyers had stood.

The area was a normal football field with a few trees around the perimeter and I noticed there were a number of birds on the field - mudlarks, crested pigeons, plovers and swallows - and I spent some time noting their flying characteristics.

The cameraman had stood approx. 50 metres from the kite flyers and roughly 150 metres from the trees in the background. The field of view 150 metres from the camera as framed in the video shots of the UFO is almost 200 metres. The UFO appeared in the frame 1/3 of the distance to the top of the frame and moved to the right very quickly over a six frame time span.

The UFO was between the background trees and the camera because it can be seen passing in front of the trees and diving towards the right side goal posts where it disappears out of view at ground level as per the enclosed photographs.

If the object had been metallic it would have reflected the sunlight in all frames (sky was clear at the time) but it appears blurred and greyish in the first two shots and then seems to dematerialise into a smoke ring or ghost-like effect in the remaining frames. This is a very typical effect produced by digital videotape cameras when a small object passes close to the camera at between 15 km/h and upwards at a distance of between 15 to 40 metres or more depending on the amount of optical zoom used and the velocity of the object.

Their handy cam has a frame scan time of 1/25 sec and an electronic shutter speed of 1/50 sec so two shots are taken every 1/25 sec (which adds to the blurring of any moving objects close to the camera) and are digitally joined together by the camera electronics; also most handy cams are fitted with wide angle lenses and therefore have a large depth of field, so even when auto focus is focused to infinity objects within a few metres of the lens will be in reasonable focus, therefore any blurring will be due to motion of the object being photographed, camera movement and the amount of zoom being used. The closer a moving object is to the camera the narrower the field of view is at that distance and therefore the more blurred the image will be.

Going by the number of frames it takes for the UFO to cross the field of view it has passed in approx. 1.5 to 2 seconds and because the object is inside the football field boundary it is most likely around 30 to 40 metres from the camera. There was between 1.5 to 2 times zoom applied which means the apparent distance from the camera is reduced to around 15 metres and the apparent time taken to cross the field of view is reduced to a fraction of a second resulting in a horizontally blurred image due to the slow frame and shutter speeds, therefore when the tape is played at normal speed the object appears as a fast moving streak across the viewing screen.

There is no colour in the object, just grey, white and some darker shadows.

I believe the UFO is a typical BLURFO caused by a male mudlark (black and white) crossing the field of view at about 30 metres distant and moving at approx 60 km/h. The smoke ring effect is caused by the bird going through some very rapid and erratic wing action when it spotted the kite strings in its path and dived towards the ground while changing direction slightly towards the camera.

The black and white markings on a male mudlark could produce the effects seen in the images; the circular dark shadows of the smoke ring effect would be the bird’s black wingtips as it slowed rapidly in a fluttering manner and changed direction as it dived towards the ground.

The singular triangular dark shadow in the second image is likely to be the head and chest markings and the white dome-like effect is the bird’s white wing and tail feathers exposed when the wings are in normal flying motion. The first shot shows a distinct beak at the front and angled slightly downward, somewhat elongated as a result of the slow shutter and frame speed, closeness to the camera plus the rapid up and down motion of the birds head and body during normal flight.

The distance travelled across the frame by the object is the same in the first two freeze-frames but increases during the next three frames which would indicate that the object changed direction and/or increased speed towards the camera; this would indicate that it was quite close to the camera. The distance that the kites moved between frames is approx. one third that of the UFO which adds support to the idea that the object is close to the camera plus the fact that it can be seen passing between the camera and the background trees.

If the object was much larger and a couple of kilometres from the camera the distance travelled between freeze-frames would not have altered much when it changed direction slightly unless it was travelling at around 3000 km/h which would enable it to cross the field of view in 1.5 to 2 seconds but it wasn’t because it is within the football field boundaries.

James Neff has written a reasonable explanation of how digital videotape movie cameras produce BLURFOS in Australasian UFOlogist, Vol 8 No 5 pp.13-14.

I realise that this is not a scientific explanation for this UFO but I believe it is logical and correct. Adrian Ross (Independant Investigator)


19.05.05 MELBOURNE (MULGRAVE), VIC 1645hrs (CE1)
(Source: Victorian UFO Research Society, Moorabin, Victoria)
While at work in Mulgrave, on a fine clear afternoon in May 2005, the observer clearly saw in the northern sky what he described as a cigar-shaped object/streak moving quickly further northward. After about fifteen minutes, he could no longer see the object. While he did not think that the object was a cloud, as there was little wind and it was moving quickly, he is keen to know if anyone else reported seeing this object.

19.05.05 GOLDEN GROVE STATE PARK, SA 2315hrs (NL)
Source: 1800 Freecall National Hotline Number - Callin Code 4822(?)
On 19 May 2005 at 11.15 pm at the Golden Grove Skate Park, two men saw a flash of ‘clear’ sky in the dark which lasted for a few seconds, during which they noticed a large dish or round object in the sky. They were about two kilometres from home where the partner of one of the men also noticed the flash but did not notice any objects. According to the men, the object simply disappeared, but they did hear a beeping noise. The men freaked as to what happened and were quite shocked. Dominic McNamara AUFORN SA

23.05.05 PROSPECT, TAS 1820hrs
Source: Victorian UFO Research Society, Moorabin, Victoria
On 23 May 2005, at 6.20 pm, in Launceston, the two witnesses, while observing the slightly clouded northeastern sky, noticed a very bright orange light. It appeared to be larger than the stars and was moving rapidly across the sky from the northeast to the southwest, probably five times faster than an aircraft. They first thought that it might have been a satellite burning up, but it was below the cloud level, moving very fast, with no smoke trail, and producing no noise. Within one or two minutes, it had travelled straight toward the southwest until lost from sight.


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